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Steven Forrest was among the very first brave souls who realized that we have a new Solar System and thus we definitely need a new astrological system as well. He actually provides a solution in the August-September 2007 issue of The Mountain Astrologer. While he states quite a few relevant facts and does come up with a working hypothesis, he makes one crucial mistake in my opinion. He looks at the Solar System from the outside. I believe that we cannot do that, not if we want astrology to be Earth centered, and natal charting has always been based on that premise. Looking inside as if standing on the edge makes it indeed obvious that the rocky little planets orbiting within the Asteroid Belt are very different from the four gas giants outside it. This fact alone, however, will not provide us with a plausible new scheme. We need to look up from where we stand, and we need to take in what we see, so that we can come up with a hypothesis that works on the ancient hermetic wisdom of as above so below. Since the picture we are getting is different from what traditional astrology has been based on, it is quite obvious that we need to change the very system in a way that it would suit the new structure.

As a practicing karmic astrologer, I believe that the arrival of the new type of celestial bodies, the Centaurs, heralds the return of ancient esoteric doctrines. These doctrines claim that the human soul is a multidimensional entity confined in a three dimensional physical reality, which incarnates many times and wants to evolve. Karmic astrology works with these premises. Below is the summary of a potential astrological system which has been developed over recent years and takes into consideration the newly discovered celestial bodies. I have named this system “transcendental”.

The Past

No matter how long we go back in time, astrology has always been with us. An ancient cosmic art, it helped man understand his role on Earth and in the Cosmos. Before color TV to entertain us and digital watches to measure time, all we had was the sky. Prehistoric man learned early on to measure time and distance by watching the dance of the planets against the canopy of the fixed stars. The daily biological rhythm of life was governed by the cycles of the Moon, and agriculture by the yearly course of the Sun. The celestial phenomena were easy to follow and made life predictable, even calculable. For ages there were seven planets inhabiting the heavens, which acted out the myths of various peoples in pre-historic times. People watched them come and go and learned to decipher their meanings, which have not changed too much during the millennia. In those times the visible planets provided the astrological practitioner with suitable understanding of human affairs. Compared to nowadays’ complexity, the human psyche itself was a lot less complicated than it is today. Pre-menstrual syndrome, stress related disorders, borderline disease or autistic behavior were unheard of. The lives of archaic and medieval people closely followed predictable paths, which were determined by birthright as well as economic and social circumstances. Actual events could be calculated and potential outcomes predicted because the movement of the planets reflected the earthly processes.

As the world ages came and went, certain shifts occurred in interpretation, but the basics remained the same. Nothing seemed to change for centuries. Saturn delivered tasks and burdens, Jupiter provided gains and luck; Mars was responsible for war and violence, Venus for love and lust. Astrology formed an elegant system with triplicities, quadruplicities, twelve signs, and seven planets, and man’s fate seemed to be locked into the planetary movements: as above so below. Everything was pre-determined by the natal placements, and astrologers played the role of celestial judges who delivered verdicts rather than options regarding a person’s life path. All the minuscule details were set; it was the will of God, written in the big book of fate, the entries of which could not be altered. It was no use fighting against it or trying to cheat fate because ordinary man had no power against his destiny. Born under lucky constellations meant fame and fortune whilst stressful placements could usually not be beaten. Christianity did not ease the rigidity of this type of interpretation. In fact, the religion of the Age of Pisces took away something very important from mankind: the intrinsic belief that death is just an illusion, and that we come not just once, we spend many lifetimes on Earth. As a result, astrology has lost its powers to work as a tool to decipher the soul’s journey through incarnation cycles. For the last 1700 years, reincarnation has successfully been cast out of mainstream religion and thought. In Europe, no occult tradition could survive unless it accepted the basic premises of the Christian doctrines. Man had one life, with hell or heaven as his reward, and one natal chart to reflect his fate, which was completely predetermined.

The Recent Past

The first crack in this beautifully seamless and elegant system came with the invention of the telescope and the discovery of Uranus in 1781. All of a sudden our Solar System expanded considerably; in fact, it became three times bigger overnight. Up till then we thought that Saturn was the outermost planet. Its orbit represented the edge of our Solar System, a place of order and predictability, beyond which chaos and the unknown presided. This unknown place opened up, and with the help of a brilliant invention, man was able to peek into the darkness. What happened not long after that, however, made astrologers quite uneasy. At the beginning of the 19th century astronomers discovered a whole bunch of tiny objects, which were orbiting where a planet should have been according to Bode’s Law1. They named them “asteroids,” and their discovery has been an ongoing process, which is by no means over. The arrival of the asteroids opened up interpretation potentials for those very few who were willing to work with them, but the rest of the astrologers simply stood by and did nothing. Then Neptune was discovered in 1846. It was another gas giant, which would have been quite hard to ignore, so almost everybody was eager to add to its potential interpretation. The long awaited spotting of Pluto in 1930, however, was quite a disappointment since it was a lot smaller than expected. But the important thing was that it was out there, it was real, so we had to deal with it.

It can be stated that the four major asteroids and the new outer planets changed the face of astrology forever, although traditional astrologers have not been too willing to give up their elegant system. What did they do? Some chose to ignore the new heavenly bodies completely, saying that the asteroids are too small, while the outer planets are too slow, thus they could not possibly count. Others admitted the outer planets into the profession, and put time and effort to delineate the newcomers. The planets that had ruled two signs so far had been exchanged for them as they were discovered: Saturn was replaced by Uranus in Aquarius, Jupiter by Neptune in Pisces, and Mars by Pluto in Scorpio. And how much more appropriate they were than the old rulers. If we are willing to look into the matter with a brave heart and an open mind, we should be able to admit at the dawning of the new millennia that the old rulers were quite forced, if not truly awkward, in those signs. This may sound harsh to many astrologers, nevertheless the question of rulership takes us to shaky ground, so let us see the argument.

Let’s consider Saturn, the Teacher, Lord of Karma, Keeper of the Threshold. He is great for earthy, steady, conscientious Capricorn, but was he really describing airy, rebellious, freedom-loving Aquarius in any way? I know - I, too, was taught that he is supposed to refer to the fixed nature of the sign, but are we really to accept this explanation? What about the other fixed signs? Why does Saturn not rule them? Don’t you agree that Uranus fulfills all the rulership requirements where Saturn falls short? Or look at Jupiter, Lord of Mount Olympus. He is loud, boisterous, and fiery. He loves everything big and cannot control his sexual urges around ladies. Does he sound like reticent, dreamy Pisces, who is like a psychic sponge and wants to stay in the background? I don’t think so. Neptune, on the other hand, acts exactly like the archetype of the Piscean mystic, preacher, artist, or psychic. The discrepancy is perhaps the most prominent in the case of Mars, god of war and calamities. He is active, violent, and always brutally honest. He fits fiery and cardinal Aries perfectly, but what did he do in secretive, watery Scorpio? Mars is cruel, quick and straightforward, how do we expect him to operate behind the scenes and wait a decade until he can take revenge for a real or imagined offence? Did he become the ruler just because both signs are sexually oriented? OK, but so is Taurus… Pluto, Lord of the Underworld, is perfect for Scorpio and fulfills all the necessary requirements for rulership of the sign.

The discovery of the outer planets solved only three of the signs with double rulerships, and to this day Virgo has to share Mercury with Gemini, and Venus rules both Taurus and Libra in the eyes of most practicing astrologers. Are we supposed to be comfortable with this? Well, I have never been, so let us look at Mercury first. He is the god of mischief, the eternal child, the divine messenger; all these attributes make him the perfect ruler for airy, chatty, and fluffy Gemini. Virgo, however, is earthy and serious, picky and critical. I know - Mercury is supposed to rule its analytical side. However, compared to the versatility and superficiality of Gemini, the compartmentalizing endeavors of Virgo definitely need a deeper, more thorough ruler. Chiron, the first Centaur, wounded healer and ruler of karmic wounds, fulfills these requirements much better than Mercury. The trouble is, most astrologers don’t even want to know about him. Libra is a more ambiguous affair because Venus seems to be such an appropriate ruler. The goddess of love is beautiful, she has great taste, and she definitely cannot live alone, so at a first glance she is by all means the archetypal Libran. But is she really? Libras are cool, reserved, diplomatic - and quite asexual, while Venus reeks sexuality. She is the divine Barbie doll; all men fall in love with her whenever she wears her magic girdle. True, Libras are beautiful and artful - but is Venus the only beautiful goddess in Greek and Roman pantheon? Her sensuous nature and love of wealth makes her perfect for earthy Taurus, but isn’t she a bit too self centered and lustful for airy Libra?

These questions cannot be shaken off lightly, and not one astrological school has been able to give plausible explanations. Vague justifications like “day rulers” and “night rulers,” whatever those concepts mean, have been offered, but quite frankly they do not say much. I can understand that before the discovery of the outer planets astrologers didn’t have any choice. There are twelve signs and only seven visible planets, so the discrepancy had to be solved somehow in ancient times. Of course, we could have chosen to have only seven signs to begin with. But it never occurred to us, although there are some speculations that originally there were only eight or ten astrological signs.2 If we did so, however, we would have run into some serious problems with math. For ages, the number of degrees in a circle had been linked to the number of days it took the Sun to complete a full circle on the Zodiac. Because one-seventh of 360° is 51° and change (exactly 51°26’), the seven signs would have provided us with a rather awkward system, not to speak of logistics. I looked at the Zodiacal constellations in detail and tried my best to come up with a sevenfold division, but the groups of fixed stars just wouldn’t comply. A curious phenomenon, which proves that the constellations had not been formed arbitrarily and that it was a very natural process, is the fact that when we look up at the sky from a place without air or light pollution, we are able to see clear lines running from one star to the other, locking them into celestial patterns. I cannot answer the question what is linking those stars, whether they are some sort of energy lines, or just the illusion created by light, but they are clearly there. In my opinion, they had been the basis of the formation of the constellations in the first place.

Which fact leaves us with twelve Zodiacal signs. As a second choice, we could have assigned the seven visible planets to certain signs, and just wait for the potential of future discoveries.3 It would have meant to give up symmetry and the aura of omnipotence, which was out of the question. Also, it would have created a rather lopsided system, in which some signs - those with rulers - would have been placed above the ones that did not. Not too plausible, to say the least… A third choice was what actually happened: the creation of an elegant system which assigned one sign to each of the luminaries and gave the rest of the planets two signs each. The fact that some of these rulerships required bending the original planetary archetypes almost to a breaking point did not count a bit since the resulting system has worked for centuries and fulfilled all the requirements of “Christian astrology.” Up till 1977, everything looked more or less fine, at least we had the illusion of that. The discovery of Chiron forced many of us to re-think the whole structure of astrology because here we were with a totally strange celestial body that would not fit into any classification. Perhaps the only happy people then were karmic astrologers because we finally had a ruler for karmic wounds. But even we were in for a big shock when all hell broke loose in the nineties with the discovery of the Kuiper Belt and the flock of Centaurs that followed. All of a sudden, we didn’t know what to do. It was becoming so complicated that many astrologers just went back to the old system and tried their best clinging to it. And while I cannot blame them, we all have to realize that there is no turning back. We must solve this mess, and we might as well try to be better at it than astronomers4.

We should realize that we are back to square one in trying to solve the discrepancy of twelve signs and - instead of seven, a zillion celestial bodies. I do not wish to antagonize those who are still adamant and want to stick to the old system. If it suits them, fine. Many of my colleagues keep insisting that we don’t have any other choice. To them I always reply that if we cling to the old structure we will be the only professionals who do that and reject progress, because everything else has changed in the 20th century. Then we might as well go back to the old ways and travel on foot or on horseback, say, from Budapest to Vienna, covering the distance in days, instead of doing it by car within two hours on the motorway… Or we could use pigeons to send messages instead of mobile phones and e-mails. There are millions of inventions and practices making our lives both easier and more complicated, in the true sense of Aquarius, so do we honestly hope that astrology can remain the same as it used to be in the old days?

The Now

Let us get down to work instead, shall we? Since I am a karmic astrologer, I look at things from the karmic cause and effect point of view: the soul, a multi-dimensional entity, wants to evolve, which can be best done in a bodily form in our three dimensional reality because it provides the necessary sensory perceptions and emotional lessons for growth. The twelve astrological signs create the symbolic pathway we must tread on, and the celestial bodies represent the archetypes we must encounter in our development.

The soul leaves the soul pool and incarnates into a third dimensional reality in fiery cardinal Aries, the divine spark of individual existence. It creates the necessary physical conditions for itself in earthy fixed Taurus; it learns to interact and to distinguish between good and evil in airy mutable Gemini; it forms emotional ties in watery cardinal Cancer; and it becomes the true creative individual in fiery fixed Leo. We set out in cardinal fire and reach what we need to become in fixed fire; in between we learn the functions of the other elements. The first five signs provide the introductory stages of human existence, and the rulers of the signs help to achieve the necessary experiences. When the soul decides to leave oneness and become one instead, it embarks on the first step of separate human existence. It needs will to do so. This step is represented by Aries, ruled by Mars. Aries is the simplest of the signs, all it wants is to be, to act, to do. Separateness is ensured by fighting and striving, for which Mars provides the necessary will and energy. As soon as we have started our journey we are thrown into the thickest, densest material - otherwise the soul would immediately leave the earth plane and go back to the common soul pool, I believe. This stage is represented by Taurus, whose task is to create the necessary possessions for human existence. It is a lot of work, but Taurus might as well enjoy the process with the help of Venus. Sensory perceptions provide the drive to achieve more, enjoyment of the senses and material possessions are the reward for hard work. Once the material basis for existence is achieved, the soul then wants to know. It wants to learn everything it can, and wants to communicate, to interact with others. Air takes its lightest manifestation in mutable Gemini, which helps the incarnating soul understand the world around it. Mercury ensures that the process creates changing scenery and interesting experiences. Only then can the soul try and develop emotional ties with others in the cardinal water sign, Cancer. Human emotions present the hardest lessons and the greatest challenges, especially when the soul decides to have offspring. All of a sudden, we are no longer responsible just for ourselves. We need to learn to provide and nurture, and develop our spiritual essence with the help of the Moon. When all these stages are mastered, the soul embarks on true ego development and individuality, the creative existence represented by the Sun and Leo. The Sun is the center of our Solar System, and in karmic astrology the Sun in the natal chart represents what the incarnating soul wants to grow into in this lifetime. This is why we come, first and foremost, and the energy pattern described by it is what we will be building with our last breath.

The first five signs are ruled by the five personal planets, which represent the stages of individual ego development: Mars is responsible for will, Venus for sensory perceptions and material possessions (both Mars and Venus for sexual drive), Mercury for communication and learning skills, the Moon for emotional needs, and the Sun for creative individuality. If we draw a Zodiac and place Aries on the Ascendant, we can see that the first five astrological houses describe the same development. These signs are linked to the Ascendant, the point of incarnation5, with five aspects: Aries represents the conjunction, through which the sense of self is born; Taurus creates potentials with the semi-sextile; Gemini helps interactions with the sextile; Cancer initiates crises with the square; Leo ensures creative self-expression with the trine, and as a result the individual ego is born.

After that we reach the next three signs on our symbolic journey, and a few curious things happen there. Traditionally, Virgo, Libra, and Scorpio all have planets which already rule a sign; but, as we have seen, these planets have not been able to fulfill the requirements of rulership too meaningfully in their second signs. At the same time, when we look at these three signs from Aries as the Ascendant, we cannot help noticing that they join it with two quincunxes (Virgo and Scorpio) and an opposition (Libra). Quincunxes are unnerving and quite hard to interpret because, as Liz Greene often states, they sometimes behave like trines and sometimes like oppositions. They defy traditional categorization because we cannot apply the usual tricks, according to which soft aspects (trines and sextiles) link similar or harmonious elements while hard aspects (squares and oppositions) link the same modalities. The only plausible interpretation is offered by karmic astrology6, which states that they indicate karmic themes. Quincunxes act like karmic triggers because the issues they bring up are so familiar but yet unsolved. They should be tackled in this incarnation, and if we neglect them they may cause illnesses. Oppositions are also quite tricky because the only way to deal with them would be to stand in the middle, look at both ends at the same time, and integrate them. But who likes to be torn apart by opposites… Instead, we usually end up living out one end and projecting the other to the world. We do have a few potential territories in life where we need to learn to balance oppositions, and one is relationships. The Aries-Libra axis on the Zodiac represents the Ascendant-Descendant axis, where the nature of oppositions can be best understood.

The houses that are linked to those three signs are where we meet our personal karma. The 6th denotes burdens and baggage, hard work and obligations, health issues and illnesses, and is traditionally the place where we build our karma in this life. The 8th is the house of karmic debts, sex, death, and transformation. The 7th describes the area of relationships and open enemies. All three houses represent spheres of life which bring up very deep karmic issues, against which we are usually quite helpless. Those three houses, with their accompanying three signs, represent learning processes that are no longer linked to the general human existence. Instead, they are very individual and special because they depend on experiences brought over from previous incarnations. Can we honestly expect them to be ruled by just one singe planetary archetype? There are so many potential bits and pieces of karma. If you look around you will notice that everyone is struggling with something quite unique. Typically, we think we could solve their problem easily while we are stuck in ours for a lifetime… As a practicing karmic astrologer I have come to the conclusion that Virgo, Libra, and Scorpio - and the astrological houses derived from them - define specific individual lessons, thus all the asteroids of the Asteroid Belt and all the Centaurs of the Kuiper Belt are linked to them. They represent those bits and pieces of unique karmic issues that are characteristic only of the individual.

Of course, we can try to find one single archetype that represents or rules those signs best; and indeed there are some esoteric and karmic astrologers7 who suggest the following: Virgo is ruled by Chiron, Libra by Transpluto, and Scorpio by Pluto. I do accept them as main rulers but I am more inclined to look at the two Belts as manifestations of fragmented karmic potentials.

Asteroids can best be delineated according to their names. The first five represent mutually exclusive feminine roles in life:

The Nurturer (Ceres),

The independent Single Woman (Pallas Athena),

The Official Wife (Juno)

The Priestess (Vesta)

The Karma Breaker (Astraea)

The feminine has been badly wounded and dissected in the past five thousand years, and the asteroids with the three astrological Liliths8 carry such karma. The same method can be used with the Centaurs: look at the name and the accompanying myths for interpretation. However, I think we definitely need further examination for successful delineations. Many astrologers are willing to carry on this important work, and we all should chip in. Melanie Reinhart, who wrote quite a few articles and a book on the subject9, was among the very first astrologers to suggest that Pluto is not a planet, but rather the first Centaur. It is too tiny to be a planet and it behaves very much like the rest of the Centaurs. Kuiper Belt objects don’t occupy a single orbiting space like planets, they cross over and link with other orbits. All the rest of the discovered and named Centaurs have this characteristic feature. Pluto comes from the same region of the sky and enters the orbit of Neptune, while Chiron acts like a bridge between the visible and the invisible planets as it travels inside both Saturn’s and Uranus’ orbits. Centaurs, celestial bodies of the New Age, cross over and create links, which are karmic pathways that span over incarnations and dimensions.

After completing general development in the first five signs with the help of the personal planets, and meeting individual karmic issues in the next three represented by asteroids and Centaurs, the soul becomes strong enough to master this life through Sagittarius and Capricorn. Those two signs with their rulers, Jupiter and Saturn, represent the stages of accepting the Earth plane as adult individuals. Sagittarius and Jupiter create opportunities, Capricorn and Saturn present tasks. We want to break free in Sagittarius and learn to accept our limits in Capricorn. Through the two planets of Fortuna Major and Misfortuna Major we master the ebb and flow of fortune, the cycles of time, and the ups and downs of human existence. The 9th house is where we learn synthesis, go abroad, form ethical and religious views, where we broaden our horizon and plan our future. The 10th is where we meet the world at large, make achievements, and actually create our future. Looking at the houses, we have covered the distance from the Ascendant, the point of individual incarnation, to the MC, the point of career and fame.

And we might as well stop right there; many incarnating souls do so. Because what comes after that is optional; it is really the icing of the cake, and it is by no means for everyone. The last two signs, Aquarius and Pisces, are ruled by the two gas giants invisible with the naked eye, Uranus and Neptune. They represent higher dimensions, leaving the Earth plane, striving to go up high and reaching for the Cosmos. The traditional interpretation of the 11th house is friends and associations, the 12th is the place of “self undoing” and hidden enemies. Karmic astrology looks at these spheres of life as potential places to go beyond the edge. The 11th is what I call “the galactic house” where we can leave the Solar System and go out into the Universe for non-corporeal experiences. The 12th is our karmic bank safe, where we keep our hidden treasures. It contains traits, talents, and knowledge that we have misused or abused in past incarnations, and now we have hidden them from ourselves because we want to be able to use them in the right way. It takes time, effort and proper humility to learn to work with them. This process can be helped if we are willing to leave the Earth plane and encounter altered states of consciousness. The rulers of the last two signs deliver experiences that are above the ordinary human level: Uranus creates enlightenment and euphoria, and Neptune mystical visions and ecstasy. We all long for them but most of us can only reach those heightened states of consciousness for mere seconds. These rare experiences, however, are life altering. The images will light up and burn onto our retina like lighting flashes on a dark night (Uranus), when all of a sudden everything becomes crystal clear; or in a vivid dream when we are delivered prophetic visions (Neptune), which will change the course of our lives forever. Uranus and Neptune don’t work too well in the third dimension. We cannot drag them down to our reality because then they will manifest all the negative traits that traditional astrologers have labeled them with; we should strive to go “up there” to meet them instead.

In fact, this is precisely the difference between visible and invisible celestial bodies. The visible planets reflect life down here on the Earth plane. We have watched them for eons and we are able to understand their messages. All the invisible celestial objects, be it asteroids, gas giants, or Centaurs, operate on higher dimensions. If we drag them down into the muddy, murky physical “reality” of the third dimension they start manifesting as chaos and anarchy (Uranus), alcoholism and drug abuse (Neptune), power struggles and perverse sexuality (Pluto), and painful wounding (Chiron). But we can try going up to them and experience their gifts as clairvoyance, unconditional love, deep transformative knowledge, and healing powers.

The 13th Sign

Something else is unfolding in the sky before our very eyes. The Sun’s path is opening up in the new millennium, and a 13th constellation, the Serpent Holder, is manifesting between Scorpio and Sagittarius as a Zodiacal sign. If we intend to stick to the origins of astrology, which allotted the astrological constellations according to the Sun’s path, sooner or later we have to acknowledge the task of taking this sign into consideration as well. The process reminds me of an old tale, Sleeping Beauty, which describes the shift from lunar based calendars to solar based ones. What happens in the tale? The queen delivers a long awaited baby girl, and the king is overjoyed. He decides to throw a party and wants to invite all the wise old women in the kingdom; the trouble is, he has only 12 golden plates (referring to the Sun disk, which changes twelve times according to solar months). But there are 13 wise old women (who represent the ancient lunar months), so he leaves out the 13th and invites only 12 of them. We know well what happens in the tale; there are dire consequences of angering the Crone. Is she perhaps coming back to us in the sign of the Serpent Holder? Will we be presented with a fourth sign denoting personal karmic issues (the Serpent Holder falls between Scorpio and Sagittarius)? That is for us astrologers to work out in the near future. I don’t think we can go on acting as if nothing new is happening…

Transcendental Astrology

Transcendental astrology is based on philosophies which claim that the soul is a cosmic multi-dimensional entity, who incarnates in order to learn and evolve. The soul itself does not feel pain and does not have emotions. Entering the Earth plane, which is a three dimensional reality, the soul wants to gain experiences. The physical body, which is equipped with nerve endings, is the best tool for that because it is capable of transferring both pain and pleasure. The soul plans the details of the next incarnation in the in-between-life stage after evaluating the previous one. Unpleasant, difficult, even painful lessons become part of the human experience because they provide the necessary steps for evolution. Transcendental astrology can show the cosmic blueprint of the incarnating soul: its chosen life task, its brought-in skills, and its options unfolding in time. The natal chart is the reflection of the incarnating soul, and represents both what was learned in past lives and what has been planned in the in-between life stage. It contains relevant information on previous incarnations, personal traits and capabilities, fears and phobias, and future potentials.

The following table sums up the premises of transcendental astrology, which are juxtaposed with traditional ones.

Below is a rulership mandala that describes how transcendental astrology views the relationships between celestial bodies and signs. I included only twelve signs for the time being since no official astrological authority has so far acknowledged the existence of the 13th. This is a working hypothesis; with it, however, I have been doing karmic readings for ten years. I can only repeat what Steven Forrest says in the August/September 2007 issue of TMA: please feel free to add your thoughts to it. Our work has just begun.

TRANSCENDENTAL RULERSHIP MANDALA

Notes:

Bode’s law is a hypothesis that the semi-major axes of planets in the Solar System follow a simple rule. Uranus and the four major asteroids were discovered according to it.

According to Alice Bailey, Virgo and Leo were one sign in the past, composing the Sphinx (see The Labours of Hercules), and according to Liz Greene, Libra used to be the claws of Scorpio (see The Astrology of Fate)

There have been speculations that Uranus must have been visible by the naked eye in Babylonian times, and that Chaldean priests knew about the other outer planets as well (see Horowitz, W. "Two New Ziqpu-Star Texts and Stellar Circles,"Journal of Cuneiform Studies, Vol 46, 1994.

I refer to the ridiculous new rules by which the International Astronomical Union defined the concept of planets during their meeting in Prague in the summer of 2006.

In karmic astrology, the Ascendant represents the point where the incarnating soul enters the physical body at birth. As the Sun appears on the eastern horizon each morning and thus a new day is born, so the soul starts a new incarnation by joining the body at birth.

Magi astrology does speak about bi-directional quincunxes as having the same impact as trines.

The fragmented feminine and the three astrological Lilihts represent the most wounded feminine archetypes. The scope of this article does not allow detailed presentation of these issues. For further information, read Demetra George’s Mysteries of the Dark Moon, or see my website (www.the-dreamweaver.net).

See Saturn, Chiron, and the Centaurs.

If the above has wetted your appetite, watch out for the brand new book and accompanying DVD on Transcendental and Karmic Astrology, which will be published in the autumn of 2008 by Sophia Studio, Inc.